An interesting use of skt.loka

Abstract

In my book on loka I I supposed this Sanskrit word to have originally meant more or less open place to which the light of day had access. In substantiating this supposition three interesting places escaped my observation. They occur in the Taittiriya-Br~hman. a and were at the time discussed by Bfhtlingk ~ who rightly rejected the traditional translation adopted by Bloomfield 8 in rendering 1, 7, 1, 7 vyur anudita.h sarya.h, na v~ etad diva na naktam, tasyaitasmi~l loke 'pa~ phenena gira udavartayat, viz. It was dawn, the sun had not risen: that, you know, is neither day nor night. He cut off his head with the foam of the water in this world. Following Mhdhava on TS. II, p. 96 (r~tror ahnag ca sa.mdhikale) and S~ya.na on TB. I, I, 4, 3 (lokagabda.h kalapara.h) Bfhtlingk then regarded loka as synonymous with kala. His article induced Roth to propose a correction: Richtiger wohl 'Zwischenraum' so viel als 'Zwischenzeit', in allen drei Stellen ist das Intervallum kurz and Cowell to write: ! cannot help thinking that loka might get an extended meaning from 'world' to 'time' like our old English phrase world without end. If it originally meant 'space' (uru loka), it might be easily extended to include duration 4''. They were no doubt wrong. B6htlingk ~ in his turn added to these comments: Ich glaube jetzt, dass loka = roka ist und ursprfinglich Licht, Helle, dann Lichtung, lichter, freier Platz bedeutet. An allen drei Stellen ist ein bestimmtes Tageslicht, n~mlich das unmittelbar vor Sonnenaufgang erscheinende, gemeint, das weder Tag noch Nacht genannt werden kann. Compare also M~dhava on TB. 1, 6, 7, 5 (sdka~ sarye.nodyata nirvapati, etasmin vai loka indro v.rtram ahan): etasminn eva loke sftryodayendvalokyamdnabh@radege. Needless to say that I fully agree with Brhtlingk's latter interpretation.